Good idea or bad idea, is Surviver going too far? Producers of the hit CBS reality show “Survivor: Cook Islands” have declared that when the season begins on September 14th, the contestants will be divided by race. After starting the show in 2000, producer Mark Burnett and host Jeff Probst have consistently heard criticism for the show being “mostly white.” According to Probst, the change in the show’s format is the result of “wanting to turn that criticism into something creative for the show.” Burnett, when asked where the idea came from, said: “We were brainstorming, and the idea to separate them along race lines came up. We all just sat there, a bit shocked. I thought ‘If that’s the reaction it got in this room, then we have to do it.’” The show has already divided tribes by age and sex, so why not try race, right?
Race in this country is a much more sensitive subject than age and sex, though, and it seems somewhat risky to create clear racial divisions on a prime-time television show. The 20 contestants will be divided into 4 tribes: an Asian-American tribe, an African-American tribe, a Hispanic-American tribe, and a White tribe, although they’ll be given Cook Islands names like Pukapuka and Manihiki.
Critics are left wondering if it’s truly a social experiment or perhaps just a stunt to increase the show’s ratings. Sure, the race issue has gotten the attention of its viewers, and if in fact it is just a ratings pull, the producers will probably get what they wanted. A lot of people will watch the show just to see how the racial tensions pan out, but as we all know, race is a very complicated and controversial subject. The fact that viewers will root for the team of their race and against all the others won’t help the heated racial divisions already present in this country.
Posted by Hannah DeGiovanni on September 5, 2006 10:01 AM
| Permalink
